Introduction To SEO: What Is SEO?
By Otilia OtlacanTough question, "What is SEO?". As with pretty much all internet-related terms, concepts and notions, that of "SEO" does not have a unique definition and it is a blurry concept in most people's mind.
Still, what is SEO? Since there is no ultimate, fully comprehensible definition for "SEO", the only way to go is to take a look at several definitions and try to merge them in order to have the right perspective.
Wikipedia : "Search engine optimization (SEO) is a set of methodologies aimed at improving the visibility of a website in search engine listings. The term also refers to an industry of consultants that carry out optimization projects on behalf of client sites."
Fakezilla : "The changes that are made to the content and code of a web site in order to increase its rankings in the results pages of search engines and directories. These changes may involve rewriting body copy, altering Title or Meta tags, removal of Frames or Flash content, and the seeking of incoming links."
The Web Search Workshop : "The term used to describe the marketing technique of preparing a website to enhance its chances of being ranked in the top results of a search engine once a relevant search is undertaken. A number of factors are important when optimizing a website, including the content and structure of the website's copy and page layout, the HTML meta-tags and the submission process."
6am Media : "The process of improving web pages so that it ranks higher in search engine for targeted keywords with the ultimate goal of generating more revenue from the web site. There are many SEO techniques. In general, these techniques can be categorized as On-Page Optimization, On-Site Optimization, and Off-Site Optimization. There are also two schools of SEO: white hat SEO and black hat SEO. White hat SEOs are those that play by the rule (actually guidelines provided by search engines). Black hat SEOs are those that push the limit of SEOs and employ some questionable or prohibited techniques (according to the guidelines). These black hat SEO techniques are also commonly known as spam."
Website NOVA : "acronym for search engine optimization. This is the process of making a website 'search-engine-friendly. Search engine optimization is primarily used to increase rankings in SERPs, and effective SEO can increase the potential of your website and bring in more traffic."
Thousands more definitions are available, almost as many "SEO guru's" you will find online ("The Guru Problem" is actually the title of another article to be published soon).
As you can see, no definition is like another, but they all tend to converge to a certain common understanding.
There are numerous techniques and tools used to achieve SEO goals, and they should NOT be included within a definition.
Since it is not correct to define a concept through its tools, here is a definition I have come up with after long deliberations. The suggestion is to define SEO as follows:
SEO = abbreviation for "Search Engine Optimization", the process of optimizing and tuning a web site and gaining online awareness for it, in order to deliver targeted visitors and ensure high conversion rates.
When done correctly, SEO activities must:
- make search engines crawl the site;
- make search engines index the site;
- ensure a high ranking among SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) for given keywords;
- achieve a high page rank;
- drive targeted traffic;
- achieve high conversion rates among the site's visitors.
Since nothing is definitive and ultimate in the world of SEO, I'd like to receive your feedback and comments: TeaWithEdge.com is a way to contact me and speak up about your Marketing concerns.
About the Author: Otilia is an e-Marketing expert. She owns Marketing Links Directory - MarketingWHO, and her current SEO clients are Marketing & e-Marketing Articles and Resources - TeaWithEdge and Colorado Homes | Denver Real Estate.
Source: www.isnare.com
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An SEO Glossary - Common SEO Terms Defined
By Glenn MurraySearch Engine Optimization (SEO) has become an essential weapon in the arsenal of every online business. Unfortunately, for most business owners and marketing managers (and even many webmasters), it's also somewhat of an enigma. This is partly due to the fact that it's such a new and rapidly changing field, and partly due to the fact that SEO practitioners tend to speak in a language all of their own which, without translation, is virtually impenetrable to the layperson. This glossary seeks to remedy that situation, explaining specialist SEO terms in plain English...
AdWords
See ‘Sponsored Links’.
algorithm
A complex mathematical formula used by search engines to assess the relevance and importance of websites and rank them accordingly in their search results. These algorithms are kept tightly under wraps as they are the key to the objectivity of search engines (i.e. the algorithm ensures relevant results, and relevant results bring more users, which in turn brings more advertising revenue).
article PR
The submitting of free reprint articles to many article submission sites and article distribution lists in order to increase your website's search engine ranking and Google PageRank. (In this sense, the "PR" stands for PageRank.) Like traditional public relations, article PR also conveys a sense of authority because your articles are widely published. And because you're proving your expertise and freely dispensing knowledge, your readers will trust you and will be more likely to remain loyal to you. (In this sense, the "PR" stands for Public Relations.)
article distribution lists
User groups (e.g. Yahoo, MSN, Google, Smartgroups, and Topica groups) which accept email submissions of articles in text format, and then distribute these articles via email to all of the members of the group. See also 'article PR'.
article submission sites
Websites which act as repositories of free reprint articles. Authors visit these sites to submit their articles free of charge, and webmasters visit to find articles to use on their websites free of charge. Article submission sites generate revenue by selling advertising space on their websites. See also 'article PR'.
backlink
A text link to your website from another website. See also ‘link’.
copy
The words used on your website.
copywriter
A professional writer who specializes in the writing of advertising copy (compelling, engaging words promoting a particular product or service). See also ‘SEO copywriter’ and ‘web copywriter’.
crawl
Google finds pages on the World Wide Web and records their details in its index by sending out ‘spiders’ or ‘robots’. These spiders make their way from page to page and site to site by following text links. To a spider, a text link is like a door.
domain name
The virtual address of your website (normally in the form www.yourbusinessname.com). This is what people will type when they want to visit your site. It is also what you will use as the address in any text links back to your site.
ezine
An electronic magazine. Most publishers of ezines are desperate for content and gladly publish well written, helpful articles and give you full credit as author, including a link to your website.
Flash
A technology used to create animated web pages (and page elements).
free reprint article
An article written by you and made freely available to other webmasters to publish on their websites. See also 'article PR'.
The search engine with the greatest coverage of the World Wide Web, and which is responsible for most search engine-referred traffic. Of approximately 11.5 billion pages on the World Wide Web, it is estimated that Google has indexed around 8.8 billion. This is one reason why it takes so long to increase your ranking!
Google AdWords
See ‘Sponsored Links’.
Google PageRank
How Google scores a website’s importance. It gives all sites a mark out of 10. By downloading the Google Toolbar (from http://toolbar.google.com), you can view the PR of any site you visit.
Google Toolbar
A free tool you can download. It becomes part of your browser toolbar. It’s most useful features are it’s PageRank display (which allows you to view the PR of any site you visit) and it’s AutoFill function (when you’re filling out an online form, you can click AutoFill, and it enters all the standard information automatically, including Name, Address, Zip code/Postcode, Phone Number, Email Address, Business Name, Credit Card Number (password protected), etc.) Once you’ve downloaded and installed the toolbar, you may need to set up how you’d like it to look and work by clicking Options (setup is very easy). NOTE: Google does record some information (mostly regarding sites visited).
HTML
HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the coding language used to create much of the information on the World Wide Web. Web browsers read the HTML code and display the page that code describes.
Internet
An interconnected network of computers around the world.
JavaScript
A programming language used to create dynamic website pages (e.g. interactivity).
keyword
A word which your customers search for and which you use frequently on your site in order to be relevant to those searches. This use known as targeting a keyword. Most websites actually target ‘keyword phrases’ because single keywords are too generic and it is very difficult to rank highly for them.
keyword density
A measure of the frequency of your keyword in relation to the total wordcount of the page. So if your page has 200 words, and your keyword phrase appears 10 times, its density is 5%.
keyword phrase
A phrase which your customers search for and which you use frequently on your site in order to be relevant to those searches.
link
A word or image on a web page which the reader can click to visit another page. There are normally visual cues to indicate to the reader that the word or image is a link.
link path
Using text links to connect a series of page (i.e. page 1 connects to page 2, page 2 connects to page 3, page 3 connects to page 4, and so on). Search engine ‘spiders’ and ‘robots’ use text links to jump from page to page as they gather information about it, so it’s a good idea to allow them traverse your entire site via text links. (See ‘Link paths’ on p.21. for further information.)
link partner
A webmaster who is willing to put a link to your website on their website. Quite often link partners engage in reciprocal linking.
link popularity
The number of links to your website. Link popularity is the single most important factor in a high search engine ranking. Webmasters use a number of methods to increase their site's link popularity including article PR, link exchange (link partners / reciprocal linking), link buying, and link directories.
link text
The part of a text link that is visible to the reader. When generating links to your own site, they are most effective (in terms of ranking) if they include your keyword.
meta tag
A short note within the header of the HTML of your web page which describes some aspect of that page. These meta tags are read by the search engines and used to help assess the relevance of a site to a particular search.
natural search results
The ‘real’ search results. The results that most users are looking for and which take up most of the window. For most searches, the search engine displays a long list of links to sites with content which is related to the word you searched for. These results are ranked according to how relevant and important they are.
organic search results
See ‘natural search results’.
PPC (Pay-Per-Click advertising)
See ‘Sponsored Links’.
PageRank
See ‘Google PageRank’.
rank
Your position in the search results that display when someone searches for a particular word at a search engine.
reciprocal link
A mutual agreement between two webmasters to exchange links (i.e. they both add a link to the other’s website on their own website). Most search engines (certainly Google) are sophisticated enough to detect reciprocal linking and they don’t view it very favorably because it is clearly a manufactured method of generating links. Websites with reciprocal links risk being penalized.
robot
See ‘Spider’.
robots.txt file
A file which is used to inform the search engine spider which pages on a site should not be indexed. This file sits in your site’s root directory on the web server. (Alternatively, you can do a similar thing by placing tags in the header section of your HTML for search engine robots/spiders to read. See ‘Optimizing your web ’ on p.22. for more information.)
Sandbox
Many SEO experts believe that Google ‘sandboxes’ new websites. Whenever it detects a new website, it withholds its rightful ranking for a period while it determines whether your site is a genuine, credible, long term site. It does this to discourage the creation of SPAM websites (sites which serve no useful purpose other than to boost the ranking of some other site). Likewise, if Google detects a sudden increase (i.e. many hundreds or thousands) in the number of links back to your site, it may sandbox them for a period (or in fact penalize you by lowering your ranking or blacklisting your site altogether).
SEO
Search Engine Optimization. The art of making your website relevant and important so that it ranks high in the search results for a particular word.
SEO copywriter
A ‘copywriter’ who is not only proficient at web copy, but also experienced in writing copy which is optimized for search engines (and will therefore help you achieve a better search engine ranking for your website).
search engine
A search engine is an online tool which allows you to search for websites which contain a particular word or phrase. The most well known search engines are Google, Yahoo, and MSN.
site map
A single page which contains a list of text links to every page in the site (and every page contains a text link back to the site map). Think of your site map as being at the center of a spider-web.
SPAM
Generally refers to unwanted and unrequested email sent en-masse to private email addresses. Also used to refer to websites which appear high in search results without having any useful content. The creators of these sites set them up simply to cash in on their high ranking by selling advertising space, links to other sites, or by linking to other sites of their own and thereby increasing the ranking of those sites. The search engines are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and already have very efficient ways to detect SPAM websites and penalize them.
spider
Google finds pages on the World Wide Web and records their details in its index by sending out ‘spiders’ or ‘robots’. These spiders make their way from page to page and site to site by following text links.
Sponsored Links
Paid advertising which displays next to the natural search results. Customers can click on the ad to visit the advertiser’s website. This is how the search engines make their money. Advertisers set their ads up to display whenever someone searches for a word which is related to their product or service. These ads look similar to the natural search results, but are normally labeled “Sponsored Links”, and normally take up a smaller portion of the window. These ads work on a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) basis (i.e. the advertiser only pays when someone clicks on their ad).
submit
You can submit your domain name to the search engines so that their ‘spiders’ or ‘robots’ will crawl your site. You can also submit articles to ‘article submission sites’ in order to have them published on the Internet.
text link
A word on a web page which the reader can click to visit another page. Text links are normally blue and underlined. Text links are what ‘spiders’ or ‘robots’ use to jump from page to page and website to website.
URL
Uniform Resource Locator. The address of a particular page published on the Internet. Normally in the form http://www.yourbusinessname.com/AWebPage.htm.
web copy
See ‘copy’.
web copywriter
A ‘copywriter’ who understands the unique requirements of writing for an online medium.
webmaster
A person responsible for the management of a particular website.
wordcount
The number of words on a particular web page.
World Wide Web (WWW)
The vast array of documents published on the Internet. It is estimated that the World Wide Web now consists of approximately 11.5 billion pages.
About the Author: * Glenn Murray is a website copywriter, SEO copywriter, and article submission and article PR specialist. He owns article submission service Article PR and copywriting studio Divine Write. He can be contacted on Sydney +612 4334 6222 or at glenn@divinewrite.com. Visit http://www.DivineWrite.com or http://www.ArticlePR.com for further details.
Source: www.isnare.com
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SEO - What You Should Not Do
By Endar WSSEO is one of the economic ways to get your url listed on the top of free search engines. That is why SEO become so important. There are tons of guidance in SEO on the internet. But in the other hand, there are also misguidance in SEO. They always say to optimize, optimize and optimize your web page with keywords, without considering another factors like determining keywords or phrases keywords effectiveness, how many times you should repeating keywords on your page, etc. What I want to tell you is, that's not enough. If you want to get effective search engine optimization, then avoid these mistakes:
1) Using wrong keywords.
What I mean with wrong keywords are using certain keywords or phases that have no effectiveness in value. Using these kind of keywords will bring you thousands of competitors (not visitors) and make your site stink.
2) Keyword density exceed than 5%.
It is true that to get the top on search engines, you need to repeat keywords several times on your page. But, too much repeating keywords on your page will make your site being penalties, since search engines assume it as spam. Just follow the thumb rule: keyword density may not exceed than 5%. This is the safe way to get your url listed on search engines. If you have any difficulties about this, simply, divide the keyword with the numbers of total words. Multiply the result with 100%. Now you got it.
3) Hidden texts.
Hidden text is text that has the same in color with web page's background and this is a part of spam. Many web masters use hidden texts technique to increase keyword density. Indeed, these texts is unreadable by human visitors but, spiders can recognize it.
4) Too much images/flashes.
This is another mistakes of building web sites. Many web masters use images and animations in their web site to attract visitors. It does make their web sites dynamic but, search engines can not see even an image on their site. They don't realize that search engines are blind. If inserting an image become so important, use it's alt attribute so search engines robots can read the alternative texts. The alt attribute itself have to represent keywords you use.
5) Javascript
Like animation, Javascript does make dynamic web site but, search engines cannot recognize it well. So it is need to be avoided.
About the Author: Endar WS is a SEO copywriter. Visit his site for more information of search engine optimization and get your url listed on the top 25 of free search engines.
http://www.2search-engine-optimization.info
Source: www.isnare.com
Google Seo - What To And What Not To Do
By Abe SmithIn Google SEO (search engine optimization), you, the webmaster, wage war with Googlebot, Google's listing spider. Only this war has no weapons. Instead it is your content veruses the army of Googlebot's other sites to rank.
To win this war there are things the webmaster must do, and things the webmaster must not do, should he stand a chance in winning the war and claiming a position on the top 20 results of Google.
There are many things a webmaster must do to take the edge of Googlebot. First and foremost, create the website. Let it be something unique, or better than the rest. Add pages on top of pages of content. You could put articles, information, anything. With one exception. It MUST be relevant to your website. After you have about 10 pages worth of content, get some links to your site. Submit to directories, loads of them. Try to submit to directories without a reciporical link requirenment. Also use word-of-mouth advertising to get a view visitors. As soon as you have some links, some visitors, and loads of content, hit your view visitors with a boom. Offer rewards for who could refer the most members, or who could submit the most articles, or anything to promote your site. Also remember to squeese in possible keywords in your content, and DO NOT forget meta tags, they are the key to SEO.
You may have noticed, I never mentioned when to submit your site to Google, that's the thing, don't. If google picks up your site before you submit it, you get a way better rank.
Now you have come up with a very good SEO website. Now you need to make sure not to blow it. Whatever you do, DON'T:
1: Have link exchanges with non-relevant sites, this will hurt you.
2: Do not cheat. Cheating is placing "invisible" keywords on your site. (white text on white background) Googlebot picks it up, and boom, no more rank on Google.
3: If you find the need to submit your site, do it, ONCE. If you submit twice then, say goodbye to your rank.
That's all and good luck with the SEO. With this, good keywords, and minimal compition, you will get within the top 20 of Google.
About the Author: Abe Smith owner of the Webmaster Forum (www.webmasterforum.buildtolearn.net/index/homepage.html) enjoys writing articles and tutorials about web programming, SEO, and computer security. I can be contacted at gametyrant2000@yahoo.com
Please contact me if you would like to use this article on your website (for free).
Source: www.isnare.com
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Top Ten SEO Myths - Mr SEO
By Joe Balestrino - Mr SEOEver wonder what the biggest SEO myths are? I have taken the most prevalent myths that seem to be constantly resurfacing and examined them for you. This is a must read for anyone looking to hire an SEO firm or someone looking to do SEO for themselves.
Myth # 1 All meta tags are of equal importance
Some meta tags are useful while others are not. I have stated this many times. Search engines are relying more and more about what is on the website than what the tags are telling them. The description tag is used by some (but not all) search engines. The same goes for the keyword tag. Keyword tags are used more by spammers and people using software to find you as a link partner than the search engines. In my opinion, the only tags you should concentrate your efforts on are the robot tag and the description tags.
Myth # 2 You should submit your site to search engines weekly or monthly
Honestly, I never submit any site more than 1 time and sometimes I don't even do that. If you submit your site once, you're good. The engines will come back on their own. You can sometimes speed up the process of getting your site indexed by linking it to a high traffic or high PR site. The search engines will find the URL to your site and index it automatically.
Myth # 3 SEO is too expensive
Actually, SEO is probably the most cost effective form of online marketing. Organic SEO is cheaper to set up and maintain than a PPC campaign or banner advertising. With PPC and banner advertising, you pay for clicks or impressions. With SEO, all clicks are FREE. You simply pay for the set up and monitoring of your site's pages.
Myth # 4 PPC is more effective than natural SEO
In the short term...true. In the long term...false. Why, you ask? Organic SEO is preferred by traffic over 5 to 1 to PPC. People trust organic searches to return relevant results. People also know that the ads to the right of the page are sponsored ads. They have long ago figured out that anyone can bid on any term they want, as many often do, without even a hint of relevance. So, long term SEO structuring can indeed be more effective than PPC, especially when considering the preferences of search traffic. A top 5 ranking may take some time to get, but once you are there (and provided you can maintain it), you will get better results than from a PPC ad.
Myth # 5 Hiring an SEO specialist "in house" is cheaper
The problem with hiring someone in house is, they are paid hourly or by salary. Most SEO firms (Mr-SEO included), charge per item or project. It doesn't matter how long it takes us, you pay a one time charge. When you hire a firm, it's like having a team of SEO experts on your payroll. Paying a flat rate saves you money and speeds up the time it takes to complete a job. Additionally, most SEO firms (again, Mr-SEO Included) have specialists who write, submit, redesign sites, post pages, etc... Hiring one person who can do all these things competantly is highly unlikely.
Myth # 6 I can only optimize my homepage for keyterms
You can and should optimize every page on your site. Each page should have it's own keyterms, with no more than three phrases per page (preferrably one).
Myth # 7 All I need to do is write content with the correct keyword density and my site will rank well
Wrong...especially if you want to rank on Google. You will need off site SEO as well as onsite SEO. Keyword density may work on MSN (for now), but it will take more than that to rank well for all search engines.
Myth # 8 I shouldn't aim for the most competitive keywords and phrases
If the keywords you are competing for are very competitive, should you optimize your site for them? Of Course! I would optimize for some high, medium and low competitive keyterms. Cover all your bases. The worst case is that you won't rank well for the high competitive keyterms and that's ok. You can always work to improve them. Don't shy away from top keyterms just because they are competitive. You may never know how close you could rank for them unless you try.
Myth # 9 Only work with companies that give you a guarantee
Guarantees would be nice if they were worth the paper they are printed on. In fact, most guarantees from SEO firms have the same stipulation in them. This stipulation usually states that as long as they get one of your keyphrases to the top of any major search engines, they have fulfilled their end of the agreement. This is irrelevant to the competition of the term. In other words...it's easy to be number one for terms no one is competing for. Don't be deceived by high rankings listed on SEO sites as they can be misleading.
Myth # 10 SEO requires a 1 year commitment on my part
It certainly shouldn't. Don't lock yourself into a year contract with any company unless you already have an established, favorable business relationship. SEO, in most cases, should be performed on a month to month basis with a mutual understanding of the objectives and relative timetable. Often, both the long and short term maintenance contracts that many firms insist on including with each job are unnecessary. As an example...If you have a new site optimized, especially right after an update, you may not see results for three months. Why pay for maintenance in the interim time? Additionally, you may not be happy with the results of an SEO firm or even the level of service. A long term contract may only ensure that you receive a full year of bad service. So, don't lock yourself in with a year contract, at least until you are comfortable with who you are dealing with.
Hopefully, I put a few common SEO myths to rest. Feel free to contact me with questions you may have regarding these or other SEO myths you want more information on.
About the Author: Joe is an SEO expert. His SEO/SEM firm has helped many companies increase there organic placement. . He also writers articles and creates a weekly podcast on SEO. Win SEO for your site just for posting on the Mr SEO message board. visit http://www.mr-seo.com
Source: www.isnare.com
